The Joke's Over [Audio Cassette]

Steadman, who famously illustrated much of Hunter S. Thompson's work, wasn't along for the legendary ride to Las Vegas, but he was there at the birth of gonzo journalism in 1970, and he was there when Thompson's ashes were blasted out of a cannon in 2005. Here, alongside a generous selection of his drawings, he recounts their shambolic adventures together, from the Kentucky Derby to the Rumble in the Jungle to the Kona Coast. While Steadman's slashing, ink-spattered art seems the perfect embodiment of Thompson's booze- and drug-fueled prose, in temperament he was a foil, a Welshman who hated America, while Thompson, in his excess, was perhaps the quintessential American. Steadman genuinely admires his friend's writing but examines his character with clear-eyed honesty and corrects the record as he sees fit. Given the push-pull of their relationship, one wonders if Steadman--an author in his own right--will write his "own" memoir or if he'll be content to be on the record as the level-headed sidekick of the most mythologized journalist of all time. Funny and--unlike his subject--dry. Keir Graff
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

PRAISE FOR "THE JOKE'S OVER"

"Hunter Thompson's marvelously deranged illustrator, Ralph Steadman, gives us a terrific memoir with "The Joke's Over" . . . His testament to Thompson, light on hyperbole, is both fitting and touching."--"New York Post"
"There can be no question that Hunter S. Thompson's pivotal works would not be the same without the accompanying artworks of his partner Ralph Steadman . . . A vivid, well-written paean to Thompson and, by extension, the character of the American rebel."--"The Buffalo News

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--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

In the spring of 1970, artist Ralph Steadman went to America in search of work and found more than he bargained for. At the Kentucky Derby he met a former associate of the Hells Angels, one Hunter S. Thompson. Their working relationship resulted in the now-legendary Gonzo Journalism. The Jokes Over tells of a remarkable collaboration that documented the turbulent years of the civil rights movement, the Nixon years, Watergate, and the many bizarre and great events that shaped the second half of the twentieth century. When Thompson committed suicide in 2005, it was the end of a unique friendship filled with both betrayal and understanding. A rollicking, no-holds-barred memoir, The Jokes Over is the definitive inside story of the Gonzo years. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

RALPH STEADMAN has illustrated many books, including Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the fiftieth-anniversary edition of George Orwell's Animal Farm. He is the author of The Grapes of Ralph (for which he won a Glenfiddich Food & Drink Award), Still Life with Bottle, The Book of Jones, and Gonzo: The Art. He lives in England.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

THE KENTUCKY DERBY May 1970 An innocent abroad a meeting of twisted minds in Bluegrass country . . . Eating out with Hunter . . . Filthy habits Mace gets in your eyes Scanlans magazine, for those of you who missed those nine wild months of publishing history, was the brainchild of Warren Hinckle III, who scorched through three-quarters of a million dollars of borrowed money in the pitiless pursuit of truth not least the call to impeach Richard Nixon as early as 1970. The magazine was named after a little-known Nottingham pig farmer called Scanlan and it dedicated itself to maverick journalism and anything that seemed like a good idea at the time. Warren set about making sure everyone knew everything about anything that moved in America, from covert activities in high places to rats in a New York restaurant kitchen. His business partner was Sydney E. Zion, who later gained a reputation as the man who fingered psychiatrist Daniel Ellsberg as the source of the Pentagon Papers, which had made public in The New York Times the US military's account of activities during the Vietnam War. They achieved their goal and made Nixon's blacklist in record time. Unfortunately Warrens excessive lifestyle and appetites outstripped the financial cornucopia that was there to begin with. After the ninth issue, the well dried up and the magazine sucked itself to death. When it happened we were out on a limb, covering the Americas Cup for them. Not the best news to learn over a bad line to New York while asking for more funds. Scanlans found me in Long Island in April 1970, not long after I had arrived from England to seek my particular vein of gold in the land of the screaming lifestyle. I was staying with a friend in the Hamptons to decompress. His name was Dan Rattiner and he ran and, in fact, still runs the local newspapers, Dans Papers and The East Hampton Other. Dan was young and in love with Pam. Dan and Pam treated me with great kindness and hospitality but after a week I began to feel I was getting in the way. It was time to make my trip into New York to look for work. Dan had generously picked me up at the airport a week earlier. I roll my own cigarettes and,without thinking, I lit up in his car. Dan said, quite sweetly, I thought at the time, that they tended not to encourage such habits, particularly in a car, because it was a bit like giving cancer to your friends. I gulped down the smoke. Then I lowered the window and choked the filthy excrement out into the city. That was okay, even in 1970, and I respected his guarded request. It was then that I first saw the crossing sign at intersections which came up in green and red, pronouncing: WALK, and then: DON'T WALK. I laughed about it for some reason. It was the tone. The command. The admonition. Whichever one you obeyed, you were guilty. I was already beginning to like the city. DRINK, DONT DRINK. SMOKE, DON'T SMOKE. PUSH THAT OLD LADY OUT OF YOUR WAY. DON'T PUSH THAT OLD LADY OUT OF YOUR WAY. BO --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.